The Medal in Popular Culture

Medal of Honor recipients, both real and fictional have appeared in dozens of American novels, in Spiderman comics and in recent graphic novels. Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Frost used Tennessee’s Sgt. Alvin York as the model for characters in two novels, Heaven’s Gate and The Cave, both explorations of the price of peacetime fame for war heroes.

Medal of Honor recipient John Kelly, aka John Clark, appears in 11 Tom Clancy novels, including Clear and Present Danger and Sum of All Fears, and in the films based on those books.

The main character of Walter Murphy’s 1979 best-selling novel The Vicar of Christ, the fictional Declan Walsh receives the medal for actions in the Korean War and eventually becomes Pope.

Alvin York at the battlefield

Several Medal of Honor recipients, some based on real people, appear in Harry Turtledove’s alternative history novels making up the Southern Victory Series.

Pilot Mitchell Gant is a fictional Medal of Honor recipient in several of Craig Thomas’ techno-thrillers, including Firefox and A Different War.

In Frank Miller’s Sin City series of graphic novels, Wallace, a demobilized Navy SEAL and medal recipient, is the hero of the Hell and Back novel.

Recent books tell the stories of contemporary recipients, including SEAL of Honor (Michael Murphy) and Living With Honor: A Memoir (Salvatore Giunta).

General J. “Lonesome” Jones, USMC, is a medal recipient in the time-travel, alternative history novels in John Birmingham’s Axis of Time series.

Films & TV

Since 1941, when Gary Cooper won Best Actor for Sergeant York, Oscar has loved Medal of Honor stories. Other Oscar-winning films about Medal of Honor recipients include Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), with Spencer Tracy, The Longest Day (1962), with Henry Fonda, The Right Stuff (1983), with Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager, and Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001). Mark Wahlberg’s Lone Survivor received 2 nominations.

Audie Murphy played himself in the 1955 film To Hell and Back, which ends with Murphy receiving the Medal at age 19. It was Universal Studios’ highest-grossing film until Jaws.

The first Medal recipients, members of Andrews Raiders, were featured in two films, Buster Keaton’s silent comedy The General and The Great Locomotive Chase (1956).

Famous Recipients

Some Medal recipients achieved unprecedented fame, including Alvin York, who first put a public face on the Medal, and Buffalo Bill Cody, Army Scout turned showman. Two sets of father/son recipients are forever embedded in popular culture: President Theodore Roosevelt and son, and the MacArthurs, Arthur and Douglas.

The Medals

Learn about the medals, their symbolism, design and storied history.
Go behind the scenes and learn how they are manufactured or explore their place in culture.

The Recipients

Meet the heroes of past and present who have demonstrated bravery, gallantry and sacrifice above and
beyond the call of duty. Learn
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Character Development

The Medal of Honor Character Development Program incorporates the ideals of courage and selfless service
into the middle and high school curriculum to build character and promote responsible citizenship.

The Society

Just as the Medal of Honor itself has grown and developed since 1862, so to has the society that
represents the men who wear it. Learn about our Society, the Foundation and the Museum. Learn
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